HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. — It's been 30 years since 12-year-old Jennifer Odom was found dead in an abandoned orange grove in Hernando County. Now, law enforcement says they've arrested the man who murdered her.
During a news conference on Thursday, Sheriff Al Nienhuis shared how investigators were finally able to connect 61-year-old Jeffrey Crum to the 1993 cold case murder.
"Over the past 30 years, countless, literally countless, detectives and sworn law enforcement personnel and civilians and tipsters have had a hand in this investigation, every piece of the mosaic," he said. "The investigation never stopped."
RELATED: Jennifer Odom timeline: How detectives spent 30 years investigating a Pasco County girl's murder
Around 3 p.m. on Feb. 19, 1993, Jennifer got off her school bus, waved goodbye to her friends and started walking toward her Dade City home, which was just 200 yards away, according to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office. She never made it home.
Children on the school bus told deputies at the time that they saw a faded blue pickup truck slowly following Jennifer on her walk.
"Every agency in the Tampa Bay area was looking for the blue truck that was seen in the area by some of her classmates," Nienhuis said.
In the coming days, hundreds of volunteers joined law enforcement officers equipped with police dogs in their search of the surrounding areas. They "scoured 60 square miles of rolling groves, pastures and woods" in Dade City in hopes of finding any signs of the missing 12-year-old.
It wasn't until Feb. 25, 1993, six days after the girl went missing, that a man and woman searching an abandoned orange grove in southeast Hernando County found Jennifer's body. Her clothes were never found.
Two years later, on Jan. 5, 1995, a couple hunting for scrap metal found Jennifer's missing book bag and clarinet case.
This evidence was collected and tested several times over the course of 30 years, but it wasn't until 2015 that another investigation put detectives on the right track.
Nienhuis explained that 13 months prior to Jennifer's abduction, another young Pasco County girl was "horribly attacked and sexually assaulted." Despite being "left for dead," that girl survived.
Biological evidence collected in that case was tested in 2015, giving detectives a full DNA profile to run through national databases. FDLE was able to match the profile with the son of the man who turned out to be a suspect in both cases: Jeffrey Crum.
Jeffrey Crum
According to Nienhuis, Crum was serving two life sentences for attacking and sexually assaulting the Pasco County girl when detectives connected him to Jennifer Odom's murder. The "almost identical" nature of the two cases was key in their investigation, the sheriff said.
Now, State Attorney Bill Gladson says Crum could face the death penalty.
“I have confidence that we have the right person and that we have the right aggravators in this particular case to treat it as a death penalty case," Gladson said.
Crum made his first court appearance Thursday afternoon and asked for a public offender. His next court date is set for Aug. 29.
Detectives believe Crum may have had additional victims. Anyone with information should contact the Hernando County Sheriff's Office at 352-754-6830.